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Risk Monster revealed its ranking of the top companies and industries that Japanese university students in their first and second years would want to work at, and Nintendo is in first place. This comes after the Switch 2 debut. Sanrio is also in the top ten, as it came in at sixth place. [Thanks, Inside Games]
The study took place between August 25 and 27, 2025, and it surveyed 600 students in their first and second years of university. Nintendo was especially popular among STEM students, and this is the second time that students voted it to the top spot for companies they’d want to work for. Though it wasn’t first last year, it was still in third place. 4.7% of the surveyed students chose Nintendo as the company they would want to work at.
As mentioned earlier, Sanrio was sixth this year, rising up from last year’s fourteenth place. Google is third. The government’s in second and fourth place (with a national government official scoring higher than a local civil employee). Sony is in seventh place, and last year, it tied with Sanrio for fourteenth place.
According to Risk Monster, students wanted to prioritize their work-life balance. Japan is infamous for its corporate culture, and there is even a specific word for death by overworking. It might not be a surprise that younger generations want something different for their futures.
As the Switch 2 came out in 2025, Nintendo was the major video game hardware company on everyone’s minds in 2025. It’s hard to say if it will continue to hold its first place spot when Risk Monster polls university students on their employment aspirations for 2026.
